


I'll hide and you'll seek a new start

by 8via



Series: Intermezzo [1]
Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: F/F, How it begins, Sharing a Bed, These two sleepy nerds have my heart, non-established relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-06-10 12:29:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6956500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/8via/pseuds/8via
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, living together means that the line between friendship and something else gets a little blurred.</p><p>Or, the first few times Jessica and Ashley sleep together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll hide and you'll seek a new start

The first night you sleep together, it is not intentional.

You’re huddled on your bed, watching a movie on the laptop screen that’s resting across your laps. You’re not really touching at first, the twin bed allowing for a slight gap between the two of you as you sit propped up against lots of pillows. About three quarters of the way through, her head starts to droop; she’d been yawning all evening but had wanted to see the movie, and you offer up your shoulder without thinking much of it. She thanks you and insists she’ll make it to the end of the film, but moves a little closer and rests against you anyway. Somehow, this seems really familiar, as though it has happened many times before.

It’s comfortable.

Obviously, she feels the same way, as you start to feel her breath against your jaw, slow exhales at perfect intervals; she’s completely unconscious. Suddenly hyper-aware of every movement in your body, you will yourself not to move an inch, so you don’t wake her from this moment of peace (and it makes for a really uncomfortable last quarter of the film but somehow you really don’t mind it at all). It’s a struggle unplugging your laptop and sliding it onto the table next to the bed with the sleeping mass of your friend restricting most of your movement, but you do, and she lets out an unintelligible murmur as you adjust your position in the bed so you can both sleep comfortably; which you do.

(The morning after, she wakes up first, apologising profusely, to which you respond that it wasn’t a problem - quite the opposite, considering you slept remarkably well, which was odd. And when you hear her muttering something along those same lines, you try not to think too much about it).

 

The next time, you’re drunk as anything - you’ve never been able to hold your liquor and someone kept giving you jello shots (and okay maybe it was your fault for not refusing them, but you forget they have that much alcohol in them because they taste so good!) - so you know you need to clock out. Wanting to avoid further temptation, and knowing that if you take another shot you’ll probably be waking up on the bathroom floor, you stumble up to your room. You’ve discarded your dress on the floor and you’re tugging on an old t-shirt when the door is haphazardly flung open and Jessica wobbles on her heels.

“I couldn’t find you!” She announces, sounding about as drunk as you feel, “But now I found you. Why are you up here?” She kicks her shoes off and sits down next to you.

“Wanna go to bed,” you reply. “Can’t drink any more,”

“Boring,” she grumbles, but she leans back a little, letting herself fall onto your mattress (and nearly hitting her head on the wall).

“Comfy?” You ask, bemused.

“A little,” she says, wriggling around, then ends up with her head on your lap.

“Huh,” she then says, as if she just realises it, “I am tired,”

“I’m calling it a night, maybe you should too,”

“Yeah,” she decides, sitting up and nodding over-enthusiastically as if to further her agreement. Shifting uncomfortably in her tight top and skirt, she announces she is going to change and grabs something from her drawer before going to the bathroom. You settle under your covers and get comfortable, but after a while she appears beside you again.

“Are you gonna sleep?” You ask with a slight groan, not wanting to move.

“I want to spoon you,” she says, completely seriously, “Can I?”

“Um, okay...” you find yourself saying, and she hums happily and climbs in next to you, wrapping herself around you. It’s actually really comfortable and great and you fall asleep easily, warm and intoxicated and content.

 

The third time, you ask Jessica if she wants to settle in next to you after she wakes up in the early hours of the morning, with a shout. It rouses you also, and her breathing sounds panicked for a while so you intentionally make some noise, rustling your sheets around and taking a drink from your water bottle so she can hear that you're awake. It's a way of alerting her without the fear of startling her further, which you might have done if you had spoken. Luckily, it works, because she speaks first.

“Did I wake you up?” Her voice is weak with sleep, and you hear rustling as she arranges her pillows so she can sit up against them.

“Yeah," you reply, "but don’t worry. You sounded frightened,”

“Just a stupid dream,” she says, trying to wave it off, but you know she’s still shaken. You switch on the lamp beside you and meet her eyes.

“Wanna come over here? Would that make you feel better?”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. This is a safe space if you ever need it,”

“You’re too kind,”

“Don’t be silly, there’s plenty of selfishness involved here. I like sleep too,” Jessica rolls her eyes at that but it seems to convince her, and you let her slip in beside you, and squeeze her hand supportively, and soon you both drift off to sleep.

 

It happens more often after that.

The one time you realise you’re truly a goner is when Jessica gets sick and you unanimously decide she stays in her own bed until the contagious stage has passed. The doctor gives her three days minimum, and the Bellas make her sharpie her name onto the drinking glasses, cutlery, and plates that she uses, so they don’t all get infected.

She has to take a few days off from classes due to inability to concentrate and each night she seems to find it increasingly harder to sleep, because by the third day, mid-morning, she falls asleep in her oatmeal (much to Stacie’s - and her thousands of Instagram followers’ - amusement) and according to your friends, “just generally looks like death”. When you get in from work that evening, she’s wrapped in a blanket on her bed, and her nose is red and she looks so helpless that you pull her into your arms just to hug her for a minute. She has the most pathetic, miserable look on her face and you can’t help yourself.

“Sleep in with me tonight,” you blurt.

“But-” she tries to protest, but you’re not about to let her.

“I don’t care. You need to rest to get better, and if I get ill, well, it’ll suck, but not as much as it sucks to see you sad and hurting. No arguments.”

(You catch her virus twice as bad, but somehow it seems worth it - seeing the sparkle return to her eyes, and the gentle way she cares for you whilst you’re weak and gross is just wonderful. You’re screwed, basically.)

 

It really doesn’t take long for this to become a regular thing. It’s unspoken now, the way in which Jessica lifts the covers, climbs into your bed, curls up against your side, and slowly falls asleep. Regular turns into daily, which turns into Jessica’s bed no longer being touched. But it’s comfortable, it’s welcome, and you should really be concerned, because it’s starting to feel like _home_.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Title from song "O Sleep" - Lisa Hannigan
> 
> Also if anyone can give me some formatting advice, that'd be great.


End file.
